


Nexus map

by Tel



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Cerulean Orbs, Fanart, Maps, Tel's Resources, mostly kidding about the orbs bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-26
Updated: 2011-12-26
Packaged: 2017-10-28 04:50:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tel/pseuds/Tel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Map of the Vorkosigan Saga Nexus scaled to travel time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nexus map

**Author's Note:**

> There are a couple Nexus maps out there, but most are a bit out of date and all are pretty abstracted. I'm one of the people who find maps useful to work off of, so I figured I'd make one for my own use. Unlike other maps, the core routes on this map are roughly to scale by fast courier travel times. Secondary routes (dotted lines) are for the most part not to scale. Feel free to reuse for non-profit fic, fannish, or gaming purposes, with attribution.
> 
> NOTE: The newest novel indicates the Rho Ceta and Sergyar routes overlap out of Komarr. This is not reflected on the map yet.

 

  


**How far is it from Barrayar to Komarr?**

From Barrayar to Komarr orbit is five days by fast courier. Fast commercial ships can approach these speeds, but a more typical commercial transit would be seven days.

**How far is it from Barrayar to Sergyar?**

Rather over one week but under two by fast courier. Komarr/Sergyar seems to be longer than the Barrayar/Komarr route but not by much - perhaps six days?

**So my commanding officer is crazy and has ordered me to carry these replicators to Barrayar from Sergyar in under a week...**

If you completely ignore the safeties you can pull it off. However, a sensible courier captain would just say "yes, sir." and stop at Komarr instead.

**How far is it from Sergyar to Escobar?**

No more than a day or two by fast courier, and a good chunk of that would be travel from the Escobar wormhole terminus to Escobar orbit. See the Barrayaran retreat from Escobar

**But Miles and Elli took two weeks traveling there in Mirror Dance...**

That seems to be an error (for Sergyar read Barrayar or Komarr), especially since they took less than three weeks to travel from Barrayar. There's also no reason for Miles and Elli to change ships at Sergyar.

**How far is it from Escobar to Beta Colony?**

About four days by fast courier.

**How long does it take to reach Beta Colony from Barrayar?**

By commercial travel, about three weeks. A fast courier on urgent business can make it in roughly two weeks, probably somewhat over.  
(If the Sergyar/Escobar route is closed, it takes about two months on cheap commercial transit to go the long way via Jackson's Whole.)

**How many jumps is that?**

Regardless of what Miles says, it's more than seven.

**No, really, how many jumps is that?**

There are eighteen Barrayaran-controlled jump stations between Barrayar and Escobar.

Assuming two stations per jump point, that's nine jumps in Barrayaran territory. Ten stations are between Barrayar and Komarr. There are two jumps between Sergyar and Escobar, but it's reasonable to assume Escobar controls their jump point, so there would be only one Barrayaran-controlled jump and two stations on that part of the route. The other six jump stations presumably cover three jumps from Sergyar to Komarr.

So at a minimum it's eleven jumps to Beta Colony. It's probably more like fourteen to sixteen.

**How far is it from Escobar to Tau Ceti?**

I infer a direct jump, because of some phrasing in Shards of Honor and the fact that Miles is only roughly two weeks from home when he's intercepted in Diplomatic Immunity. Also, the urgent courier Miles gets in Brothers in Arms has news from home that's only eight days old. Likely they tightbeamed it to the borders of Barrayaran territory near Escobar (roughly a day), then the courier took seven days from there. That gives only a two day travel time window for it to enter, cross, and leave Escobar and reach Tau Ceti.

Even if it's a direct jump, it's likely at least a day planet to planet.

**How far is it from Zoave Twilight to Tau Ceti?**

That's 7 days by commercial carrier, so the fast courier time is likely a day or two shorter.

**How about from Earth to Tau Ceti?**

5 days by fast courier.

**How about Earth to Escobar?**

Somewhere under seven days, given the emergency courier time. Of course, if you are on the run from the law, keep changing ships and identities, and are nearly out of money like Mark, it could also take a month.

**I thought Quaddiespace was in the middle of nowhere? What's it doing so close to Earth?**

It seems a new route has been discovered from the Union of Free Habitats to a system on the Earth/Tau Ceti route since the system was settled. Based on Bel's comments in Labyrinth it was probably mapped between Labyrinth and Diplomatic Immunity.

**What's Orient IV doing over there? And why's Kline Station off Tau Ceti now?**

Kline Station is on the opposite side of Earth and Tau Ceti from Rodeo (Falling Free), and the shortest route to Escobar from it is not by Jackson's Whole because it would have been out of Ethan's way to go get a refund. The route from Kline Station to Jackson's Whole seems to necessarily be a long one.

Orient IV and Rodeo seem to have been misplaced on the GURPS Vorkosigan map. They're on the other side of Earth from Beta Colony and Escobar.

**But why's Orient IV off the route to Mahata Solaris?**

The thing is, there can't be too many routes going into Earth because it's not a major Nexus waypoint. Without Mahata Solaris we have 3, which is about the highest I'd be willing to assume. Miles's extremely indirect path from Mahata Solaris therefore would overlap either the Morita Station or the Orient route. I picked the Orient route because Orient's a Barrayaran Sector headquarters, so there's should be lots of planets in that area. i.e. arbitrary choice on my part.

**Why don't you have Dagoola off Mahata Solaris?**

Because Miles stopped to deliver the prisoners first and his route from there is too vague and complicated to infer. Dagoola is clearly in the Cetagandan sphere of influence.

**Why do you have six routes out of Jackson's Whole?**

While unattested, the sixth route has now crept onto official maps.

**How far is it from Jackson's Whole to Escobar?**

The Ariel takes a little under nine days. The Peregrine at unwise accelerations takes 5 days. A fast courier on normal business might usually be going a little faster than the Ariel... maybe 7-8 days?

**How about back from Jackson's Whole towards Komarr?**

It takes Elli and Mark about two weeks and one day to reach Komarr orbit from Jackson's Whole at more-than-usual warship speed. The fast courier time would likely be fairly similar, maybe a little under two weeks.

Mark takes ten days to reach the Jackson's Whole station in the Hub from Komarr in a civilian craft.

Guppy travels from Komarr to Pol in six days in a freighter.

**Why are there eight jump points near Komarr, and what are those blue wiggly lines?**

Along with the six commercially active, fortified jump points in the Komarr system, there are also multiple inactive jump points, one of which features in the novel Komarr. Blue wiggly lines are mentioned inactive routes, like the third Sergyar wormhole that eventually got Cordelia home.

**How far is it from Eta Ceta to Barrayar?**

Two weeks by fast courier

**Wait, I thought the route from Komarr to the Cetagandan Empire went directly to Rho Ceta? What are all these internal connections in the Cetagandan Empire all about?**

Guppy in Diplomatic Immunity took a route from Mu Ceta to Komarr, intercepting a ship from Eta Ceta to Rho Ceta. There appears to therefore be a three-way Rho Ceta/Eta Ceta/Komarr junction three jumps from Komarr. Barrayar controls the two jumps closest to Komarr.

**I'm confused. All the Cetagandan worlds are connected, right?**

Yes, the disconnected Cetagandan bits are all invisibly connected to be much closer than they appear. Outside the scope of this project. :)

**What are the limitations of this map?**

The Komarr-Pol-Hegen Hub-Jackson's Whole-Escobar-Sergyar-Komarr loop is well attested, but outside that things get a bit fuzzy. Some of the time all we know is that you can get to Y in a reasonably short frame of time from X, and you can also get to Z in a reasonably short time from X. Even if it's not displayed on the map, the route from X to Y might well go through Z, or branch off midway to go to Z.

**Are there any probable routes that aren't on this map?**

Sure! One of the Jackson's Whole routes pretty much has to intersect the Zoave Twilight/Vega Station route for Illyan's fantasies about Cetagandan corpsenappers to be plausible. Also, one of the other Komarr routes eventually hits Tau Ceti somehow. The Cetagandan worlds are all connected and Xi Ceta to Rho Ceta on the Cetagandan side is shorter than Marilac to Komarr. There's also an additional route that eventually gets from Escobar to Toranira. Mahata Solaris should be close to the Zoave Twilight area, and given the orders Vorpatril gets in Diplomatic Immunity I wouldn't be surprised if the Mahata Solaris/Tau Ceti route actually overlaps the Quaddiespace/Tau Ceti route going into Tau Ceti.


End file.
